THE BIG COVER-UP

Amira Arasteh on the top concealers for brightening eyes

What’s your go-to item from your make-up bag? Concealer is definitely at the top of our list – at best, it will blissfully banish any unexpected blemishes or spots that decide to surface at the worst possible times. At the very least, it will add a bit of brightness to your eyes and erase any evidence of your late night.

Whether you’re looking to disguise dark circles or unwanted spots and acne, the right concealer can be your best friend. But how do you go about picking them? Do you go for cream, powder or liquid? Medium or full coverage? Are you looking for a matte or dewy finish? Everything is important to consider here.

It’s also important to take time when choosing your shade. Many people opt to go a shade or two lighter than their foundation, to add to the brightening factor – while others choose a seamless look and colour match. Various brands pair foundations and concealers within their make-up ranges, too – these may not feature exact shade matching, but rather duos that work well together.

As with every type of make-up, there are constant launches of new products, and there are quite a few popular concealers on the market right now. To help you choose the one that’s best for you, we’ve tested a range from our favourite brands, to give you our honest thoughts.

How we tested

We tested each concealer, taking note of ease of application and how we found blending it into our skin. As well as checking how the coverage looked under various lighting and for different events, we also evaluated how seamlessly they set into our skin, as well as how they looked at the end of the day/night.

Rare Beauty liquid touch brightening concealer: £18, Sephora

This is the perfect concealer to build coverage while leaving a seamless skin-like finish. It feels really hydrating, due to a botanic blend of ingredients, as well as lightweight on the skin. We were truly impressed by the cake-free quality of this particular concealer, and felt it gave great coverage, while maintaining a radiant finish. It felt nice as we applied it and, although Rare Beauty has a selection of foundations that pair perfectly with the concealers, we actually found it merged seamlessly with the foundation we had already (from a different brand). Also, after a hectic day of shopping, and travelling on TFL’s Central line, we can confirm it’s sweat-resistant.

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Charlotte Tilbury beautiful skin radiant concealer: £26, Charlotte Tilbury

Charlotte Tilbury has aptly named this product. This medium-coverage concealer corrects and brightens your eye area, thanks to its blend of niacinamide, hyaluronic acid, vegan collagen and vitamin C. It was particularly good at concealing dark circles and spots, and it was easy to apply and blend. It had a slightly thicker consistency but it didn’t clump or clog at all, and felt really lightweight when fully applied.

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Milk Makeup future cream all over concealer: £24.50, Sephora

Offering a medium to full coverage, this concealer covers up everything from dark circles to spots and blemishes – as well as keeping skin hydrated, thanks to its barrier-restoring hyaluronic AI plant complex. Upon initially trying this concealer, we found it harder than expected to blend into the skin, and it took a while to achieve that flawless finish. That being said, a little goes a long way here, so that speaks to the longevity of this product in our make-up bag.

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Hourglass vanish airbrush concealer: £34, Cult Beauty

If you’re looking for a full-coverage concealer that will cover every inch of dark circles and blemishes, this product blurs all imperfections, allegedly for up to 16 hours. However, as full coverage as it may be, it’s weightless and not at all cakey. We didn’t hugely enjoy blending this concealer with a brush but found it worked better with a sponge. It was a little trickier to apply but we liked the finished look. Our skin looked smoother overall, with a cleaner finish.

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Milk Makeup sunshine under-eye tint and brighten: £24, Space NK

Milk’s sunshine under-eye tint and brighten concealer’s primary aim is to brighten the eye area, particularly when it comes to minimising the appearance of dark circles. Providing a light coverage, it’s the perfect antidote for tired eyes. With vitamin C in its 99 per cent natural formula, to visibily brighten and firm the skin’s appearance, it’s also hydrating, thanks to the inclusion of hyaluronic acid.

We weren’t as big a fan of this as the sunshine skin tint from Milk but we tested this for brightening purposes, rather than coverage. It definitely illuminated our eye area but our bags were still visible and would need a separate concealer underneath to be disguised.

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Benefit boi-ing cakeless concealer: £16.13, Look Fantastic

Benefit Cosmetics has seen us through some make-up highs and lows – and it’s not letting us down concealer-wise. Staying true to what it knows, the boi-ing formula is an oldie but a goodie. Offering full coverage, it aims to even out skin tone and create a flawless finish to your under-eye area. We really liked the availability of shades, particularly compared with the boi-ing bright on version (£21.50, Boots.com), which – while more hydrating – has fewer shades and the coverage isn’t as good.

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Nars radiant creamy concealer: £25, Boots

This super-creamy concealer provides medium to full coverage, as well as keeping the bags under your eyes hidden throughout the day and into the night. Including innovative light-diffusing technology, this lightweight concealer blends into the skin seamlessly, as well as ensuring it remains hydrated. Longwearing and with a buildable formula, we found this concealer really easy and, dare we say, enjoyable to apply, and it stood the test of time.

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Anastasia Beverly Hills magic touch concealer: £16.20, Beauty Bay

This lightweight concealer blurs away any blemishes, as well as aiming to brighten the under-eye area. Its creamy, medium to full coverage is buildable – although it was far heavier coverage than we initially anticipated. Thankfully, it’s not at all cakey. It melted into skin easily – though a bit too fast for our liking, as it didn’t leave much room or time to blend, drying out quite quickly. For a medium to full coverage, we enjoyed the naturallooking, luminous finish that it gave our skin.

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Sculpted by Aimee satin silk longwear concealer: £16, Sculpted by Aimee

This concealer works hard to camouflage dark circles, spots and blemishes, without making your eye area look cakey. Apply effortlessly and shrug off any concern, as this baby is here to stay. We’d long been a fan of Sculpted by Aimee’s other concealers – the brighten-up (£15, Sculptedbyaimee.co.uk) and the complete cover-up (£15, Sculptedbyaimee.co.uk) – so, we were excited to try this new addition to the fold.

At first, we were slightly put off by the small bottle being paired with a generously sized brush – particularly as this kind of pairing from other brands has previously led to unwanted product on our face. However, in this instance, we found the brush applied the perfect amount onto our skin and, although it feels quite weighty upon initial deposit, it melted into our skin effortlessly.

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Tarte shape tape concealer: £27, Sephora

This full coverage, natural matte concealer has been a popular product for years. Tarte’s bestselling concealer aims to smooth and brighten, while maintaining a matte finish.

This was an OG staple in our make-up bags back in the day, and it’s great to know the same formula and tape technology still help smooth and blur out blemishes and fine lines and wrinkles, as well as disguising dark circles. It is a fuller coverage than we’d like these days, but it does the trick when it comes to covering everything up.

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The verdict

At first, it seemed as though Charlotte Tilbury’s beautiful skin concealer would win the top spot, as many of the brand’s products tend to. However, Rare Beauty’s liquid touch concealer was a dark horse that gave the former product a run for its money. Both are excellent products but Rare Beauty just nipped slightly ahead in the race for its truly flawless finish and how seamlessly it blended into our existing foundation.

Honourable mentions go to Sculpted by Aimee’s satin silk concealer for great coverage, without looking at all cakey, as well

as the Nars radiant creamy concealer, which continues to be a trusted staple of many a make-up bag.

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